What the HP...

[unholypet]

No, but seriously. I love HP. Every computer I own, the monitors, printer/scanners, etc. have all been HP. They're easy to customize, I'm familiar with how they manufacture their boards, blah... I'll quit geeking.

Anywho, my tower's HD failed. No big deal, these things happen. I called HP because I wanted a new recovery disc, possibly to go on and buy a new HD.

It's important to remember that I have a terabyte of goodness, and that HP uses Seagate HDs.

I am talking on the phone with this lady for a while, she is asking what the error codes that showed up were, all this stuff for their own stats and such. I patiently go through the info, we confirm that my computer is well past the warranty date.

Lady: So then, can I interest you in the recovery disc for $45, with a shipping total of $22, and talk about a new HD?
Me: Wow... (damn that is expensive) actually I want to know if there's a possible deal with the disc and a new HD.
Lady: Okay, we have a deal with a new, HP brand (Seagate) HD with a large number of memory. It is 100gigs, and with the cd will be a total of $258 and $55 shipping, with the cd. Can I sign you up for that?
Me: (Good frickin grief...) Okay... I actually need a terabyte HD. That's what my computer has. (May as well hear the price for comparison...)
Lady: Well, this 500 gig HD and cd is a total of (heartattacking here... I don't even remember it now). This is almost as good as your old one.
Me: ...actually, could you tell me the terabyte price?
Lady: This combo with a 600 etc...
Me: ...but how much is a terabyte HD?
Lady: ---400, etc.
Me: How much. Is a. Terabyte HD?
Lady: ---750 etc....
Me: Okay... Those are all too small for what I want. I want a terabyte one. 1,000 gigs.
Lady: Oh my, okay, let me see...
Me: ...
Lady: *typing*
Me: ...
Lady: Okay, well I could set you up with a new computer--

x_x This went on and on, with me trying to politely hang up, and her trying to sell me machines that my tower would eat as breakfast.

After the whole selling thing, she tried telling me that HP HDs only comply with HP recovery discs. I mentioned I could just buy an OS disc. She said, QUOTH," But ma'am, HP products only work with HP discs and programs."

I just told her I would have to look at prices online and call back.

Ended up getting a brand new box of OS and that HD for $210 total.

I know that some places just have you list off things the computer is telling you about, but I still think the person doing the sales/tech/etc. should know what they're trying to sell XD

[IT Grunt]

Ugh... I've dealt with HP with our servers. Our servers are Compaq, but since HP bought them out, they've taken over the support contract. So, the other day, one of the SCSI drives in my RAID set conks out. It's running RAID 5, so one loss isn't a big deal so long as I can get a replacement soon. So I call. Jump through about 10000 hoops, finally get a drive shipped, I install it... and it fails within 24 hours.

My experience is telling me that this replacement was a dud. Considering it was refurbished to begin with, that's not an entirely unfounded conclusion.

Not to HP.

First call back, I'm told, well, your firmware is out of date, so it can't talk to the drive. Uh huh... let's see. Same exact hardware that was in there, confirmed by model #. Drive model has been running in this server for 10 /years/. So out of the blue, the firmware I have on my controller board suddenly can't recognize a drive type it's been running successfully for 10 years? Already my BS sensors are twitching.

So I try to download the firmware just to satisfy these guys and get the drive I know I'm going to need. Firmware won't install, says it's not supported. Not deterred, they tell me to try an earlier firmware that still newer than what I have. Ok... oh, look here. It says my driver is out of date. So they tell me to download the driver CD. I do, I install the driver... and it's several versions /older/ than what I have. So I call them back once again. That driver was older than what I have, where can I get the driver it says I need? Took him several minutes to locate it on their site, directs me to it, I find it, download it, finally get it installed. Now the firmware finally installs. System needs a reboot, so I schedule it for after hours.

Evening comes, I reboot. The controller board identifies the one drive requires recovery, so I initiate the process. Then the system finishes POST... "NTLDR not found. Press any key to restart."

Panic mode is now in full swing as I'm scrambling to call our server team for advice and trying to find my OS CD in case I am forced to have to reload this thing. I call HP once again. This guy then tells me that there's only one thing left that it can be. There's errors in my RAID set and it's making the error count go up and making the controller board error out the drive. In my mind I'm thinking this guy is talking nonsense. His solution? Wipe the RAID set and restart. Fortunately, as I'm on the phone with this guy, the server finally comes up on the next reboot. Drive starts to rebuild... and fails again.

This server has now had a lost drive for several days. If another drive had failed during that time, I truly would have lost the RAID set and been forced to recover from my backups. I'm getting seriously pissed, so I call up one last time. I explain the entire situation to this guy, he looks over the diagnostic I send him (for the 4th time), agrees the drive appears to be a dud, and ships me a new one. I install it... and... GASP... it works. The drive rebuilds and all is well. Throughout this entire exchange with them, I'm constantly being told 'Don't jump to the conclusion that it's hardware, it's not always hardware.' Basically, they didn't want to admit they shipped me a dud as far as I'm concerned, but as I explained to one of them, you're not the one sitting on top of a ticking time bomb while I jump through these hoops you want!

I'm seriously hoping that is the last drive to fail for a while, because that is an adventure I seriously do not want to repeat.

[EvilEmpryss]

The original lady clearly didn't know what her product line was. I'm thinking she didn't even know that 1,000 gig is a terabyte.

She'd be shocked to hear that I run Apple software on my HP drive.

[trailerparkmedic]

HP's business model is heavily based on getting the lowest price and the most out of EVERYTHING from labor to office space. Draw your own conclusions from there.

[Sapphire Silk]

All of which just proves the classic wisdom: cavaet emptor.

I hate calling tech support, with the exception of Apple's t/s. I usually know more than they do.

[fma_fanatic]

After the whole selling thing, she tried telling me that HP HDs only comply with HP recovery discs. I mentioned I could just buy an OS disc. She said, QUOTH," But ma'am, HP products only work with HP discs and programs."

Uh yeah..Tell that to the nVidia video cards I've had in my Compaq tower over the last four years. Works perfectly fine, has not imploded or refused to work. Well..okay, the newest video card died, but it was under warranty. I've also got a Soundblaster sound card and the power supply has a higher wattage than what it originally came with.

I'm just wondering how fast you wanted the shipping, because the $22 they quoted sounds like the same amount I was quoted for 2day shipping.

Just a word of warning - they will not ship it two day. My 2 day shipping ended up being close to two weeks for the recovery disks for my laptop. When I called to ask why it was taking so long; " we have to approve the order before we can send it out." Yeah... It is also going to take about 3-4 hours after you get them to install and do the update.

[smileyeagle1021]

This is one thing I will give eMachines, they aren't the highest end computers on the planet, but damnit if you can't just slap any old piece of hardware in there and get it to work. For printers I will not use anybody other than HP, but for computers I find myself more and more drawn away from them and towards eMachines.

[Midorikawa]

She said, QUOTH," But ma'am, HP products only work with HP discs and programs."

Hrm. My first experience with Linux was on an HP machine...installed SuSE 8 on it...or apparently not since only HP software works on HPs.

The last 8 years of my Linux use have been a lie!!!

[unholypet]

The last 8 years of my Linux use have been a lie!!!

Much like the cake XP

[ditchdj]

I guess hard drives just aren't built to last anymore.

I've replaced so many in my own computers that it's not sweat anymore. Just plug in two things and make sure the drive is set to "master", not "slave".

[Hyndis]

I do tech support myself, and I admit I take perverse pleasure in running right off of those flow charts the "tech support" people use in a major corporation. It confuses them.

I work for a small company. I do tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, and customer service. Yup. All at the same time. My job is to solve problems, and I solve them.

It is actually very common for a computer problem to be a hardware fault. Sometimes things just go bad. Faulty chips. When something is new the rates of failure are highest. This is known as infant mortality, and so if you get any new component the component should be suspect until it has proven itself to be reliable.

If the hardware's broke, its just broke. I'll replace it no problem. Sometimes the problem is obviously not a hardware issue, in which case I will stick to my guns. I will not replace a drive if the fault is your computer's and not the drive.

Got a drive that works perfectly in computer A but computer B will not even detect it? Its computer B's problem. Nope, not going to replace it no matter how much you whine.


One thing I've found is that its best to play dumb. If you play dumb and keep things very simple when calling into a big call center like that there are fewer things they can blame. When the wires outside on the pole get wet I lose internet. It is not the fault of my operating system, router, modem, or the phase of the moon. Its the weather. Rain or wind = static on the line.

I don't even mention anything about computers. I pretend I have no computer at all. This means they cannot blame it on the computer, and so I bypass the Turing-test failing "techs" and go right to someone who can help. Of course every time they send someone out to fix the wires on the pole outside they can't find the problem. Wonder why? Maybe because the tech only shows up when its sunny, and not when its raining and storming outside?

[Shalom]

This is one thing I will give eMachines, they aren't the highest end computers on the planet, but damnit if you can't just slap any old piece of hardware in there and get it to work.

Except for the %&^#^@^ power supply, which is almost but not completely unlike ATX.

Go on, ask me how I know this.

[KabeRinnaul]

This is one thing I will give eMachines, they aren't the highest end computers on the planet, but damnit if you can't just slap any old piece of hardware in there and get it to work.

That part has always been nice, but every original component aside from the power supply has died and been replaced at this point.

I still can't get the new CD burner to work, and the DVD drive is iffy.

Might need to ask about that in Unsupportable sometime.

[blas]

HP stands for Hewlett Packard, right?

[unholypet]

HP stands for Hewlett Packard, right?

Yes'm, it does!